Honey Cave 2 Jar
Vilma Steiert
Now, Cave Hill Cemetery has about 10 active beehives and produces about 900 pounds of honey per season, which runs from April to August. The honey is bottled and sold at the cemetery, with proceeds going to the Cave Hill Heritage Foundation. The honey even won a blue ribbon in the light amber honey category at last year's Kentucky State Fair.
"The truth is the honey is a great product and a huge benefit, and we're all glad to get it, but it's about the bees," said Cave Hill apiarist Roger Martin. "It's about keeping the bees around, because I believe they are the most important insect on the planet."
Martin, who works as an arborist at Cave Hill and began tending bees in 2017, said he used to think the average price of honey was high. Now that he knows how much work goes into collecting honey, he understands.
On a recent breezy summer Wednesday, Martin headed out to check on his hives, pulling on honey-stained gloves, a mesh net-covered hat and protective jacket. He headed to the third box in the row of hives, carefully removing the lid to peek inside.
Hive boxes are usually made with two or three boxes stacked on top of each other. The bottom box is the deeper "brood box" where the queen bee lives and produces up to 3,000 eggs per day. Then a queen excluder, a wooden frame with small holes in it, goes on top to stop the queen from getting to the "medium supers," where worker bees will make honey. Each "super" has 10 slots for frames, which will slowly get loaded with honey.
"From where we started just keeping hives, we have expanded by adding more pollinator gardens, changing what and where we plant and adding a honey house to the property," Higgs said. "The program is going exceptionally well, and it fit so well with us looking to advance our own sustainability practices."
The honey program at Cave Hill Cemetery started when independent beekeeper and Cave Hill partner Rodolfo Bernal began tending hives at Cave Hill, then encouraged cemetery staff to develop their own beekeeping team. He has mentored Cave Hill apiarist Roger Martin for the last five years or so and continues to assist with Cave Hill's honeybee program.
"I wanted to prove that city bees produce twice as much honey as country bees," Bernal said. "In the city, people have a variety of plants and they take care of the plants. So throughout the season, there is more honey in the city than there is honey in the country."
Bernal said it's beneficial to purchase local, raw honey because the pollens many people are allergic to are present in locally produced honey. Eating the honey regularly means a person is essentially taking "shots" of the allergen in small, manageable doses to build up an immunity. But commercially produced honey loses many of the health benefits and flavors when it is filtered, heated to high temperatures and shipped long distances.
"It's really, to be completely honest with you, up to the bees," Martin said. "I try to duplicate my habits season to season but sometimes they don't stop making honey and sometimes it's a little less. Inevitably whoever wants a jar of honey can get one."
Though the cave is near Honey Creek State Natural Area, owned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the cave itself is on private land in Comal County, with motion-activated cameras near the entrance to detect trespassers. Visitors to the cave must have permission from the landowners.
The cave is downstream of a proposed subdivision of 1,700 homes and three schools, planned by neighboring property owners. Cavers have been speaking out against the development plans since 2018, when developers submitted an application to discharge treated wastewater from a sewage plant into Honey Creek.
After a half-mile of crawling through mud and water, the cavers saw the quality of the ceiling formations begin to change. Fangs and ribbons of rock became translucent and more crystalline than the dull limestone elsewhere. Thin, clear straws hung from the ceiling, formed by the steady drip of mineral-laden water. Nodes of calcite resembled sparkling popcorn glued to the ceiling.
After some photos, the group headed back. In four hours, we had explored only a quarter mile of the main channel and a half mile of the side channel, a small fraction of the whole system.
Emerging into the midday light felt like a rebirth. Just downstream of the main cave entrance, the underground water poured out of a spring, tumbled down a terrace of travertine, and filled the stream bed of Honey Creek.
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Why is Yemeni honey (including Balqees honey) so expensive? The effort that goes into bringing the product from remote areas and the highly nutritional value is part of what makes this honey so special and unique. Cave honey is particularly expensive but with good reason, and the story behind it is quite extraordinary.
My own connection with Yemeni honey is part of my culture and an important part of my life. I grew up in Yorkshire, UK but my roots are in Yemen. My family moved to the UK in the 1950s and brought with them many of the strong traditions. One of my favourite memories from childhood is eating Bint Al Sahn (Yemeni honey cake) with lashings of Sidr honey. My mother and I still make it today when we get together.
The work is labour intensive with the production and delivery from both the bees and human. You can still find traditional beekeeping methods in Yemen, as described in the book, The World History of Beekeeping and Honey Hunting by Ethel Eva Crane. Bees have protected themselves from the intense heat by making their hives in caves in the mountains for centuries. The book explains how the people of the mountains learned to mimic the cave environment and create their own versions and cultivated their honey that way, learning from nature. The use of small wood, cane or pottery hives for both stationary and nomadic beekeeping are still practised and the techniques of beekeeping and honey extraction remain mostly intact, although some modern methods have been introduced in recent years.
The most expensive Yemeni honey is Kahouf (cave) honey, from Wadi Amd. There, in the remote mountains, inside caves as mentioned, the bees make wild hives. Hidden from the sun this liquid gold retains its thick consistency, amber colour and all its rich nutrients. We work with a cooperative of beekeepers and can only get around 300 to 400 kilos every two years as it's so difficult to find and harvest. The beekeepers have to crawl inside the caves through narrow fissures in the rock and collect just enough so that the bees can still thrive without damaging the hive or these precious creatures. It is so rare and so raw and so good and it costs at least AED 5,500 (1550 USD) a kilo.
For centuries our forefathers have understood the remarkable healing properties of raw honey and Sidr honey is often called the Manuka of the Middle East. Yemeni Royal Sidr honey is lauded in ancient religious texts for its curative abilities and considered medical grade with healing properties far higher than standard table honey.
Sidr honey is reported to be particularly good for liver problems, stomach ulcers, respiratory infections, digestive problems, infected wounds and burns, surgical wounds and strengthens the immune system and promotes general health and vitality. Some honeys are found to have as much as 75-150 mg ascorbic acid per 100g, while others have less than 5mg per 100g. Research has found that darker honeys like the Royal Sidr Cave honey has higher antioxidant properties which helps combat the signs of aging.
Oorla Cave Black Honey is sourced from Anamalai Tiger Reserve & Parambikulam Reservoir by the Pulaya tribe in the Kurumali settlement from dark caves.
The bees collect the nectar from different forest flowers; thus, the honey is imbued with an aroma of multi-flower. The honey is collected without harming even a single bee, ensuring the sustainability of the ecosystem.
Cave Black Honey is filled with amino acids, enzymes, probiotics, and minerals, making it a superfood for your body. With no artificial colors or flavors added, you can enjoy the natural sweetness and flavor of this honey.
Indulge in the taste of original and pure Honey and experience the goodness of nature in every spoonful.
It was late August when Spectrum News visited the cemetery, right in the middle of a honey harvest. There are gallons of already processed honey ready to be bottled. The processing room is warm and there are dehumidifiers on.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story reported Cave Hill Cemetery produces thousands of pounds of honey, when they actually produce hundreds of pounds of honey. The error has been corrected.
I die cut all the fun coral, sea life, shells and more from the Ocean Deep Scene Builder Honey Cuts dies. Each one was colored using Copic Markers in colors R17, R22, R20, YG67, YG17, YG03, YG00, YG99, YG93, E43, E44, E04, E43, E42, E40, BG72, BG11, Y19, Y24, and YR15. I adhered the coral, starfish and other ground items to the front panel opening of the cave. I added some Warm Pearls to the front for a little bling.
I also cut several hanging greenery from the Succulent Garden Builder Honey Cuts dies set. I wanted this greenery to hang down from the rock, over the cave opening. I colored these in greens: YG67, YG17, YG03, and YG00. I tucked them between the rock layers of the cave. Since these show through on both sides, I colored the back side of the vines, too.
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